Let them buy it, then nationalize! Reverse OIl Shock.

http://www.estatesdubai.com/up.....782977.jpg

http://www.dubaipropertied.com.....kely-l.jpg

http://images.businessweek.com.....-dubai.jpg

Let them eat yellowcake.

-G

Thanks Ian.

digg

http://internationalpropertyin.....island.jpg

http://www.shareordie.in/wp-co.....-duba1.jpg

http://blog.luxuryproperty.com.....irates.jpg

Heh, good one, GSD! ;-)

Does Dubai use ‘Monopoly’ money in their financial sector? If not, I don’t think that the Wall Street guys would be happy there; they don’t seem to understand any other kind these days.

I think they’ve found Atlantis…

No sh*t.

Some provisions I recommend:

* Insist on an immediate end to the $150B-per-year occupation of Iraq.

* Give home owners right of first refusal whenever their mortgage is about to sell — all they should need to do is match the price.

* Re-establish Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to assist them with financing.

* Raise taxes on the rich, e.g., via a surcharge.

* Transaction tax (e.g., 1%) on paper transactions: stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc.

* Preferred stock (at market) to make up the difference between the bailout price and the market-value of bailout assets.

* Establish “market vales” atatistically via selective auctions.

So let’s see if I can get this straight. Phil Gramm broke Glass-Stegall, tearing down the barriers among financial institution types. Fast forward to the meltdown and even Johnny DeRegulator McSame comes to Jeebus and calls for more regulation.

The answer to that is to allow the last two remaining investment banks to become banks. Quiet like. Guess they hadn’t quite finished the de-regulatin’ before they started the re-regulatin’.

Meanwhile the hole at ground zero is still a hole in the ground with scaffolding around it….

“Investors, and especially foreign investors, want to know that if they buy in again, they’re protected. “; EXACTLY Ian. You nailed it. Anyone remember the uproar about the Dubai company providing U.S. security services?
“Which is also why the Paulson or Dodd bailout is still on the books.” ; true BUT the cost to the U.S. citizen is just too much.
When a country’s debt is 70 per cent of of it’s GDP, that’s a BIG problem and naturally leads to the devaluation of the currency. And when the U.S. dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency (note I didn’t say if, but when), the average American’s standard of living will fall big time. As you have already pointed out.

Looks like the Bushies had been planning this heist for months:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....612/607556

heh

the executives will all be either working for Chinese and Arabs, or they’ll be out on the street,…

I vote for that what be bolded.

So. Are we all moving to Dubai???

I thought all those Ay-rabs lived in tents and caves…WTF???

mebbe. do all the women wear the bee-keeper suits?

In case others missed this(and want to use it when calling/writing your Congress critters):
Progressive Conditions for a Bailout
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/.....a-bailout/

we’ll be staying here *g*

It’s kinda interesting to accept that the fruits of your needs result in luxury that surpasses your own ability to satisfy the desires of your aspirations…

The shift of wealth is evident.

Must be what eats up T.Boone..

I’d rather live in a tent on a beautiful river or lake….but that is just me.

Per the Wikipedia:

Credit default swaps are the most widely traded credit derivative product[2] and the Bank for International Settlements reported the notional amount on outstanding OTC credit default swaps to be $42.6 trillion[1] in June 2007, up from $28.9 trillion in December 2006 ($13.9 trillion in December 2005) and by the end of 2007 there were an estimated USD 45 trillion worth of Credit Default Swap contracts.[3]

But by the end of 2007 there were an estimated USD 62.2trillion .[4]

In the US, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported the notional amount on outstanding credit derivatives from reporting banks to be $16.4 trillion at the end of March, 2008.

That is to say, a doubling time of less than a year:
1/1/06: $14T in OTC credit-default swaps
1/1/07: $29T in OTC credit-default swaps
6/1/07: $43T in OTC credit-default swaps

Also:
3/1/08: $16T in reporting-bank credit derivatives

Compare those to:
1/1/08: $62T U.S. dollars in the whole fucking world.

So, instead of me being a dirty, greasy, mouthy, dirt bag mechanic, I can suddenly become a national repair facility with impeccable credentials and an automatic half million dollar expense account that no one can question and I can run into the ground without oversight.
Can I do this again next Monday?
Sounds like a good time to me.

Crooked sonsabitches, anyway.

I am slowly coming around to the view that the best course of action in this crisis is effectively do nothing. While the realignment will be messy and uncomfortable, the primary “victims” will be the miscreants who created and benefited from this mess. Any bailout likely to be passed will also likely have disastrous results, except then the victims will be average taxpayers, while the Wall Street “geniuses” walk away largely unscathed.

What we need to pass is legislation forcing renegotiation of troubled mortgages (or at least good faith efforts) so that homeowners can keep their homes and banks can recoup some of their investments. Then impose a strict regulatory framework for the entire financial industry and break up the megabanks like Bank of America. Too big to fail is too big to exist.

Heh, EW already noted that this had been in the works for months:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake......this-plan/

On why there is no oversight in this proposal:

I have no doubt they left out the oversight because

1. They don’t plan to abide by any

2. Any oversight they came up with would be way tougher than what the toothless Dems would propose.

Example: B. Frank “we are going to have an independent board look at each transaction after it happens…”

you mean after it is too late to change it.

Remember these fools don’t ask for permission, they ask for forgiveness and by the way did I mention trust me.

How does this oversight committe keep them from doing the same thing over and over?

How…we can’t even get these assholes to show up for a congressional subpeona….

Moral hazard is too great!

NO BAILOUT!!!

OT

Does anyone have the Miss North Carolina YouTube from a couple of months back?

It is going to be a great comparison point for the VP debates.

Or here, right on the Guadalupe River:

http://austinfloattrips.com/im....._small.jpg

Saw a tv show about that hotel. It is truly gorgeous and the way it is built is jaw-dropping.

Goldman Sachs was a high risk financial investment company. Of course, Trash for Cash Hank used to work there, and still apparently is receiving deferred but still sweetly fungible compensation from GS.

However, some magical bank pixie dust turned GS into a Bank! Their high risk investments have turned into Bright Shiny Untroubled Magic Investments. Even better GS can now get Trash for Cash from Hank. It is all good.

Wow! Thanks. This is some very good stuff. I’ll have to spend some time studying it.

Just to be clear…they wear regular clothes…jeans…etc., under their coverings in their houses..they cover when they go into public….they are incredibly educated and cool people….just sayin’.

I am with you on too big to fail…

This is apparently tought in Business School. So they are all brainwashed that they are going to be bailed out.

Questionable ethics for sure.

Finally, somebobdy who gets it. Kaptur for President!

here ya go

Heard a talk show host (SF) who visits the ME often say that the women would come home, take off those long robe things and would have on shorts, tank tops and sit down and have a drink.

I think we the people need to keep our powder dry for the real crisis to come.

We can’t fund a giant Works Progress Administration if we have already borrowed all we can.

Already the Fed is out of traditional mechanisms for stimulating the economy.

We need the Federal Govt. to have something in its arsenal if the worst a Depression happens.

Makes sense, they couldn’t have just whipped up that plan overnight, as APPEARED to be the case. As Bush would probably say, “The trouble with the French is that they have no word for coup d’état.” Of course, he would pronounce it “COOP-dee-tat.”

That is how it was for my friends from Qatar.

they wear regular clothes…jeans…etc., under their coverings

crap - deal-breaker.

back to researching the Cayman Islands….

…the best course of action in this crisis is effectively do nothing.

Exactly. Meltzer was on PBS this evening and said the same thing, that “they always claim the sky is falling when they want to bail out their pals.” Said that if it became necessary, to loan the banks money that they have to repay with no bonuses or dividends until repayment. Best ideas I’ve heard so far.

It is considered sexy. I’m not lyin’…they told me that…

Hey Doc, here is one of my favorite sights in Chicago.

And…they were incredibly beautiful people…

Hey, ratfood!
Second link is good, but the first - no hit on my end…

Doesn’t Congress go home next week? How are they supposed to do anything in that period of time - at least, anything that is sensible?

from mike whitney via chris floyd:

The problems cannot be resolved by shifting the debts of the banks onto the taxpayer. That’s an illusion. By adding another $1 or $2 trillion dollars to the National Debt, Paulson is just ensuring that interest rates will go up, real estate will crash, unemployment will soar, and foreign central banks will abandon the dollar. In truth, there is no fix for a deleveraging market anymore than there is a fix for gravity. The belief that massive debts and insolvency can be erased by increasing liquidity just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.

That’s why Henry Paulson is the worst possible person to be orchestrating the so called rescue project. Paulson comes from a business culture which rewards deception, personal acquisitiveness, and extreme risk-taking. Paulson is to finance capitalism what Rumsfeld is to military strategy. His leadership, and the congress’ pathetic abdication of responsibility, assures disaster. Besides, why should the taxpayers be happy that the stocks of Morgan Stanley, Washington Mutual and Goldman Sachs surged on the news that there would be a government bailout yesterday? These banks are essentially bankrupt and their business models are broken. Keeping insolvent banks on life support is not a rescue plan; it’s insanity.

and arthur silber again from floyd:

Make sure you get the message. The Democrats will provide the check, it just won’t be a blank check. The Democrats want “independent oversight.” But the money will flow — to insolvent financial institutions, precisely those institutions responsible for this debacle, and to buy up bad debts which will thus not be allowed to wash out of the system…

At this point, does anyone believe “strings” or “oversight” are worth a goddamned thing? Let me remind you of something that no Democrats and none of their defenders wants to be reminded of: the Iraq catastrophe. The Democrats have had the biggest “oversight” mechanism in the world — or to be precise, in the Constitution — since early 2007. The Democrats could have cut off all funding for this criminal war and occupation. They will not do it.

They could have impeached Bush, Cheney and several more of the leading criminals. They will not do it.

Add in the pattern the Democrats followed in the FISA debacle, with regard to the Military Commissions Act, and on a host of other questions, and you see what the Democratic opposition is worth. In a word: nothing.

and this great chart of usa gov bailouts.

say that the women would come home, take off those long robe things and would have on shorts, tank tops and sit down and have a drink.

re-initiating research on Dubai…

Interesting, works for me. Try this one.

This sounds to me once again that this is for Goldman and Morgan….

I think this stinks….Paulson should recuse himself since he is getting compensation still from Goldman…

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....refer=home

Yeah, I have seen that, though I did not normally get that far northwest, except passing through. This was my favorite quick bite stop. Great dogs, polish, & Italian beef. All an easy walk from my apartment. Of course there was also the half dozen Thai places, 5-6 sushi/Japanese places, the Wild Hare and Singing Armadillo, half a dozen great pizza joints (Giordanos deep dish!), four or five good Mexican places (in my favorite one the waitresses huddled together to see who had enough English to wait on me the first time I went in), and the three Ethiopian restaurants.

fyi. tomorrow at noon. more from the p&b show (no that is not a sandwich). this time at the house financial services committee hearing.

Here is one prediction. Goldman Sachs will battle Keith Richards and cockroaches to control a post Trash for Cash world.

In essence: when Goldman Sachs needs money, and the guy lending the money is rich, they give him something for it. When Goldman Sachs needs money, and the guy lending the money is us, they don’t.

It’s been said that when the dust clears from WWIII, the only things left standing will be Keith Richards, cockroaches, and the investment bank of Goldman Sachs. Having lived long enough to see the Stones, my old New York kitchen, and the events of the past week, I wish I could disagree.

We’ll be on it!

You forgot Cher and Twinkies.

My patriotism doesn’t extend to Wall Street.

Selise…Thanks for that post…

Agreed and agreed.

No Bailout. Keep powder dry for main street later, if needed.

We may all have to move in with each other but it heck it will be just like a HurricanE Evacuation!!

Hurrication everyone!

You better hope when all is revealed at the end of your dance of the seven veils that there is a woman standing there and not Michael Jackson. Actually, I think he has returned to the U.S., so never mind…

Wow, India is a little tougher on corporate malfeasance.

-G

I saw that interview. He compared this to the Chilean economy of the 80’s, a much smaller problem, if we can believe the figures Pauly is tossing out. He mentioned foreign liquidity availability. Or why can’t the Fed just loan the money to them? The taxpayers will be socked if we rely on the crooks to price the “assets” to sell to the Fed.
I think his idea should be discussed in the hearings.

The bankruptcy portion of the bill makes it possible for people to save their principle residence. Most likely the price for the house is better than the bank or whoever holds the mortgage would get in a foreclosure, and it takes houses off the market that would have been there if foreclosed.

It really is a great idea.

You better hope when all is revealed at the end of your dance of the seven veils that there is a woman standing there and not Michael Jackson.

pretty sure I could take him.

No - not *that* way….

Saw that earlier. Now that is my kind of labor action. Pretty much guaranteed to get their attention and make your point. Might not be inappropriate in our current situation.

Okay, I officially don’t care anymore.

We need to take a NO BAILOUT position. After listening to Barney Frank say, very cavalierly, to David Shuster on Countdown that “there is no guarantee, I don’t give guarantees, we can’t guarantee anything, no one knows if this will work….”

Well then, let’s do nothing. It will be a terrible and wrenching adjustment, but let’s be SURE everyone understands why it happened: an utterly failed conservative ideology of “you’re on your own” “I’ve got mine, fuck you” and “free market is doG.”

Let it fail. Let them work for Dubaiins.

It is The Bush Legacy.

great! i wasn’t able to listen today, but i’m going to try to tomorrow.

SuperDawg definitely wouldn’t have been in easy walking distance of your neighborhood. So much food, so little time. Ever go to Ann Sathers for the fresh cinnamon rolls in the morning?

* Give home owners right of first refusal whenever their mortgage is about to sell — all they should need to do is match the price.*

Interesting. This addresses mortgages acquired for less than outstanding balance and presumes mortgagor has access to refinance facilities
(or ready cash)?

Heh, think it’d work here…? ;-)

“In truth, there is no fix for a de-leveraging market anymore than there is a fix for gravity. ” ; that is truth and that is why Dodd and Franks bills must not pass.
The Fed and the Treasury have tools to address this BUT those tools impose hurt on those they are indebted to.

And I wouldn’t be surprised that such happens here. Remember gun rights?

Looks good. Every time I’m in Chicago I make a pilgrimage here:
http://www.centerstagechicago......ndies.html

My favorite desserts anywhere on Earth.

Like impeachment, doing nothing appears to be off the table. Seems like the only portion of the economy that ever trickles down to us is bearing the cost of failure(s).

I am with you (see mine at 25).

Have done indeed. Best. Cinnamon Rolls. In. The. World.

While I don’t advocate violence, I still wouldn’t mind if there was a bit of fear about collective actions of the workers of the US.

We’ve become pretty damn docile after decades of Norquistan Reaganite indoctrination.

-G

My favorite desserts anywhere on Earth.

If it was good enough for the Beatles, I should definitely try it sometime.

McCain trying to get cagy:

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos reports: If Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain doesn’t vote for the Bush administration’s $700 billion economic bailout plan, some Republican and Democratic congressional leaders tell ABC News the plan won’t pass.

[snip]

“John McCain has been very clear that he has certain reservations about the details of the agreement that has been released at last notice,” Bounds said. “There is no final agreement to review, but when there is John McCain will weigh in responsibly and appropriately.”

[snip]

Some senior Democrats on Capitol Hill have voiced concern that McCain will continue to oppose the Bush administration’s plan as a way to position himself as a critic of Wall Street and the Bush Administration.

If McCain doesn’t vote for the legislation, other Republicans might follow suit, leaving the Democratic-led majority to fight in Congress to pass the risky bailout plan.

However a Democratic congressional leadership source tells ABC News’ Jake Tapper that Paulson went so far as to assure Democratic leaders that McCain “won’t be a problem” — in other words that McCain will vote for the proposal.

NcSame wants to let the Dems pass it and then run against them and Bush.

Hey Ian, great stuff you’ve been doing!

I saw the clip of Paulson and Bernanke testifying today and they both looked totally panicked. Paulson, was begging like a dog, hands shaking, voice quivering, and Bernanke looked white as a sheet as he let us all know what is about to happen.

Yeah, because it is a bailout/immunity…bill…FBI is hot on their trail…except that Mukasey is head of DOJ…and ultimately FBI…

Hmmm…

now *there* is a valid reason for LARGE executive pay.

and golden *real* parachutes.

kinda puts a damper on the negotiating prospects, though.

Workers- “We are unhappy.”

CEO - “And I have a plane to catch - right now!”

I think we need to show this to all our union leaders in this country.

Jackson Browne on Colbert! Crazy John stole his song, just as he stole Obama’s “change” slogan.

NcSame wants to let the Dems pass it and then run against them and Bush.

won’t work. Dem’s will just paint it as McCrazy refusing to accept regulation, of any kind, of the crooks on Wall Street.

Funny summation of what’s going on:
http://www.squarestate.net/dia.....nts-gnomes

Same with songs by Heart and Van Halen. The McCain campaign don’t need no steenkin’ permissions…

Teddy is upstairs with
Palin’s Wootengate Coverup Falls Apart

Republicans only believe in intellectual property rights when they are theirs. Same thing happened to Springsteen with Reagan and somebody (maybe McCain) used one of Mellencamps’s songs without permission as well.

… New York is, definitively, no longer be the world’s financial center. Odds on favourite to be the new one? Dubai… Shanghai isn’t ready.But Dubai is raring to go.

You and I must be reading some of the same sources.
Mine confirm this interpretation of recent events.

In any event it’s the classic carrot and stick approach. Fatcats get the carrot, taxpayers get the stick.

The rest of the rethugs are rebelling against it, too. That’ll make it a Dem/Bush giveaway.

They probably use the cease and desist letters to light their stogies.

OT

Faux entertainment had a segment today on the presidential race being so close. They were saying that the election could be a tie. And that in case of a tie, the House would vote to elect the Pres & it would go Dem and Obama would win & be Prez. And then the Senate would vote it would be a tie because of the 2 Independants & Cheney would break the tie and then Palin could be the VP.

Does any one know if this is how it would work if it was a tie. Of course I believe Obama will win by a very good margin. But if it were a tie, how would that work. Fauz did also say there would be lawyers all over…

Please tell me this isn’t so.

Shut up and keep on bailing…bail. bail, bail people we ain’t in Kansas anymore. G

They both looked like they were lieing to me. When asked why it needed to be passed so quickly neither had a good reason other than we’ll be in a bad recession. We’ve been there for a while. Were they hoping this would get passed before we found out about the FBI investigating them?

I think I’m with you. Too much fait accompli, too little anticipation/prevention.

Great one for the wonks, from CR:
Hold-to-Maturity Pricing, or why does Bernanke think that the loans should be worth more if they’re kept to maturity (swept under the TARP) than they would be today if the holders tried to sell them.

Short answer: Probably no good reason. Explanation involves default-risk discounting instead of price decline estimates as we’ve been doing here.

Another idea…and I think that local municipalities and States could do this. Simply prevent economic evictions to not take place for two or three months if ANY payment is paid in rent or for the mortgage. $1 keeps you in your primary residence. It keeps people in their homes rather than let them sit empty, and holds out the possibility that renegotiation of the mortgage can be negotiated. In fact, it encourages renegotiation of terms by the lender.

I like the Kucinich plan:

“Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.”

This is called “taxation without representation.”

Ian

Investors, and especially foreign investors, want to know that if they buy in again, they’re protected. Since they aren’t going to be allowed to buy up the US’s financial sector for pennies, that means they need to know that prices will be maintained so they aren’t buying pigs-in-a-poke.

I’m not an economist, but how is this protection? All the Fed does is print money. I guess Buffet is mostly in dollars, so he hasn’t that much to lose.

Hey under the Clintons and the Bushes our dependence on foreign fossil fuels is now about 70%, it grew more under the Clintons’ “great” economy than under Bush. The problems we face our systemic with bad presidents. So New York will become like London or SFO, basically a tourist destination.

jumping in late very late here. while doing research recently i noticed that major law firms in US have all set up offices, in fact moved corporate headquarters , to Dubai. Major govt contractors as well have moved corp offices to Dubai. What did they know a year ago that we didn’t?? um….

I am almost of the opinion that it will be better if the world financial market moves to Dubai…then Wall Street can be just a little exchange like SF or Chicago.
The bonus will be that the serious dickheads will all have to move to Dubai to work and we can be free of their narcissistic imperial dreams.
It would also force us back to a real economy rather than the financialized mess we are right now.